52% would contribute more than 5% of their salary into their workplace pension

Just over half (52%) of employee respondents who are currently saving into a workplace pension would be willing to contribute more than 5% of their salary themselves, according to research by Aviva.

Its research, which is based on surveys of 2,000 UK adults who currently pay into a workplace pension, 277 of Aviva and Friends Life’s larger corporate pension clients, and 174 of Aviva’s small and medium enterprise (SME) clients, also found that 29% of employee respondents would contribute 10% or more of their salary into a workplace pension.

The research also found:

68% of large employer respondents would be willing to pay more than the 3% of an employee’s salary that they will have to contribute to workplace pensions in 2019, and 13% of large employer respondents would be willing to contribute 10% or more to their employees’ pensions.

43% of SME respondents would be willing to contribute more than the minimum 3% employer contribution due to come into force from 2019.

Andy Briggs, (pictured), chief executive officer at Aviva UK and Ireland Life, said: “Auto-enrolment has undoubtedly had a positive impact on the pensions landscape in the UK. But we are just at the start of this journey. The current contribution levels will not have a significant impact on people’s financial position in retirement. Even when minimum contributions rise to a total of 8% in 2019, this still won’t provide an adequate retirement fund for millions of pension savers.

“Now that [auto-enrolment] is embedded in over 250,000 businesses, we need to build on the success we’ve had already and work out exactly how we’re going to crack this pension savings challenge.”